New Admins for PLH

Hi everyone. Just a quick note to let you all know that I have promoted Wendy and Joseph as additional admins for the group. The three of us all agree that minimal moderation is required for this group, but it will help to have two more pairs of eyes to keep an eye out for any issues that do arise. My thanks to both Wendy and Joseph for volunteering!

I also wanted to let you know about a couple ideas I had to see if there is any interest.

I thought it might be fun to set up a Flickr pool if there are enough members that use Flickr for photo sharing. For those that don't know, a pool is just a group for sharing photos. I believe there is a Flickr widget that can be added to our group page here if we want. If this is something you would contribute to reply here to let me know. If there's no interest I won't bother.

I've also got an idea rolling around in my brain to have a second resource site for the group. We've had a lot of book recommendations and it would be nice to have member reviews as well as other resources listed. I'm reluctant to add too much more to our resources section, I don't want it to get too cumbersome. It would be nice if this was something any of us could contribute to so my first thought was something like Goodreads.com where we can have our own group. I'm still mulling this one around and don't have a specific direction yet. I'd love to pick the groups brain(s) on this and see what your ideas are.

If anyone needs or wishes to contact me privately please feel free to PM me here or send me an email at dkim6599@gmail.com. I don't always get notified that I have a message here (seems like a bug) so if it's timely you might want to email me instead of PM.

Fair question. I've communicated with Wendy and Joseph that I want very minimal moderation and they both agree.

Let me respond first by telling you what we won't be doing:

Editing posts: None of us actually have the power to edit other members posts or discussions.Deleting posts/comments/discussions: Only in very rare instances would we resort to deleting posts. Spam, an obvious troll. On extremely rare instances content issues.**Banning members This is not to say absolutely no one will ever be banned. But there would have to be a very good reason for that to happen. Someone posting for the express purpose of stirring up trouble, repeatedly, for example.

I plan on trying to write up a list of group guidelines in the coming weeks. I'm not big on rules though so I don't have a lot to say. What it boils down to is this:

Respect other members. Name calling is not tolerated. Disagreements will occur occasionally. If they become heated or personal one of the admins will step in to offer a reminder to keep it friendly or to suggest the discussion be continued in private. I am not talking about debate here. Debating is fine, personal attacks are not. If such a discussion is not reigned in by the involved members it is possible for it to be closed for further comment. Closed discussions can be re-open so I think it's the best solution in an extreme case.

**Content issues - I am loath to even say this because I don't want to get into an argument about censorship. I am completely for free speech on this board. My only concern in this matter is that some members access the site from work or in public locations. I don't want anyone to have to worry that something they open at work will get them into trouble. If a member is posting something that might be controversial labeling it with NSFW should eliminate most concerns.

I know it can be frustrating to not know what the rules are. I hope that answers your concerns, but if I didn't please understand that I prefer to moderate reactively as a problem comes up rather than setting up a bunch of unnecessary rules. This is a good board, with good people and I don't expect there will be more than very occasional need for interference by admins.

(this took longer than I expected to post thanks to unexpected maintenance on the site).

Link isn't working for me. I know I was a member of your group but it seems like some of my CM groups disappeared (as in I'm no longer a member) so I can't get to it from my home page.

I have to be honest though and say that I really don't like Cafemom and would prefer to spend my time focusing on this group. But explain what you mean by a sister group, what would that entail? Perhaps we can work something out. PM me if you like.

Welcome admins. (can we officially grant 'overlords' as the title? What does that make Dawn?) I think it may good idea. We all need reminders, including the idea that text lacks inflection, no matter how hard we try to ensure it is appropriate.